Geneva - Gypsies living in squalid conditions remain victims of racism and violence across Europe, a UN report said yesterday. Human rights groups, including Medecins du Monde, endorsed the report's call for European governments to increase protection of the minority, known by various names including Roma, numbering eight to 10 million.
Persecution in central and eastern Europe is rife, including reprisal attacks on gypsies in Kosovo and raids on their slum settlements near Athens to clear space for the 2004 Olympic Games.